Messages

I sit Section C, center court.  Not more than 10ft from Talksalot.  It is very difficult to understand much of anything.  I just use context clues to piece together most of what he is saying.

I'll take another Vashil potential project any day.  I remember all of the board bashing that occurred with Vashil during his first 2 years, only for those folks to be taking it all back his final 2 years

I don't take a word of it back.  He was absolutely awful for two years. Then he turned a corner.  Then he turned great.  I still say he was terrible for two and great for two.  Can't argue that.

Omg, now we are speculating on merchandise sales based on zero information and completely misunderstanding what the point of a mascot.  The dogs are not going on any gear.  The soul purpose is to stand around and high five children.  The gear will focus on Valpo and the shield with some Beacons.  I mean honestly.  It worries me that these things are such a struggle here.  I can't imagine how often you cry and whine to your spouses/families/coworkers every day about a college student in a dog costume at a game that you attended 3 months ago. 

No incoming recruit or potential game attendee gives a damn about the dogs or the Beacon.  They aren't refusing to come over a stuffed animal suit.  They can buy all the "VALPO" gear they want and all the shield gear they want. I agree with Paul.  With each year, incoming classes well care zero percent that Valpo ever was a Crusader or ever had a creepy, sad-looking Crusader mascot loafing around the sidelines.  Only the old and whiney will shake their fist at the cloud that is the mascot changes.

Anyone wanna talk basketball?  Seems like an exciting time in the program to do so!

It's so sad to me to watch grown men constantly cry and whine over a nickname and a mascot.  I think they are lame too.  But the extreme snowflake-y feelings about them is highly hypocritical, as these are the same people who called the anti-"crusader" crowd whiney.  Get over your pouty feelings about the mascot.  It's over. 

We are Valpo.  We are here to talk basketball.  It's just exhausting to hear grown adults whine over nothing endlessly.

To the actual point at hand....I expect it to be a tough year under touch circumstances.  With the heavy transfer environment of college hoops now, coaches don't need 5-6 years to bring in "their guys".  Three years should be plenty of time to tell the Rev's tale.  I am here to support him (even if he says just unspeakable and hurtful things to our boomer fans, like "Beacon")

Not interested in any Valpo alums or past coaches/assistants with all do respect to Tonagel, Powell, Diebler, Nuness, or any of the rest.  Valpo is in desperate need of a fresh start.  A new perspective and above all new leadership as the press release called it is in order.  A break from the past legitimizes Valpo as a serious basketball program.

Thank you Gore, Bowen, Drews, Powell, Tonagel, Diebler, etc.  Its time for a new era of Valpo basketball to begin.  We have tried to hang on to the past for far too long.

What's our % if you take out the non D1 victories?  We had a lot of them. 

We played 9 such games in the last 5 years (10 in the last six year).  Thankfully we won them all in that span unless I missed one.  Here are our win %'s excluding those:
2016-17    0.719
2017-18    0.433
2018-19    0.419
2019-20    0.529
2020-21    0.308
2021-22    0.393
All Years    0.475
Last 5yrs    0.423

I was curious about the trending of the Valpo Basketball performance in the post-Drew era.  I wanted to visually see the performance of the team both in Conference and overall.  Note that 2016-17 was Alec's senior year and the final year in the Horizon League.  I compiled the conference finish along with the Preseason poll.  A few striking notes:
1) Best conference record in the MVC is 9-9
2) Conference Win % since joining the MVC is .389
3) Overall Win % since joinging the MVC is .456

Not sure if I attached the picture the most efficient way.  Did my best.

Seems like we should have a poll here to appropriately inform the committee of the best choice.  Anyone industrious enough to set that up in a new thread?

Certainly the ISUb transfers are in no small part driven by their coach getting let go. 

I feel like using a perceived slight by power 5 teams during your recruiting is a poor reason to limit your professional basketball opportunities.  If I knew I was not heading to the NBA, but that snagging 15 minutes a game at Clemson would net me $50k more in a Greek league versus playing in Puerto Rico? Yeah I'll take that. 

I don't think we always put ourselves in the shoes of the athlete.  They are making decisions based on a lot more factors than who sent them a pamphlet when they were 17. 

cmack, if you have an issue with the name crusaders being tied to KKK then Valpo should move all crosses from campus immediately?

See what we are getting at.

No, not at all. This is the most bizarre take I've heard yet.  Just wow.  🤦🏼‍♂️

Actually, valpopal's post provides pretty compelling evidence. cmack's post doesn't attempt to refute it - it just discards him as a crazy conspiracist without addressing the points he made.

If you have a refutation to the inflatable mascot point valpopal made, then make it. From where I sit, valpopal's post makes a lot of sense, especially the part about the inflatable mascot "wearing out" being dishonest.

Actually, valpopal's post provides pretty compelling evidence. cmack's post doesn't attempt to refute it - it just discards him as a crazy conspiracist without addressing the points he made.

If you have a refutation to the inflatable mascot point valpopal made, then make it. From where I sit, valpopal's post makes a lot of sense, especially the part about the inflatable mascot "wearing out" being dishonest.

So to clarify, all the transparency purists would be just as a free if the process were changed, but the result was announcing that the university was standing by the Crusader name?  Some would still be upset and threaten to withhold donations?

Even if this was a unilateral decision by the interim president, the debate many are making here avoids confronting those concerns.  Or really acknowledges them.  Many want the process debate because they lack a case against the actual merits of the change presented. 

It's a loophole with very real correlation with what is occurring on the political scene. 

I hate the result, so I'll attack the process.

I've heard so many times that the name change is less damaging than the lack of transparency and "sham survey".  I'm sorry.   I don't buy that.  The issue here is that a segment of alumni are upset by the name change.  Simple as that.  The cries of a fraudulent process is a smoke screen and justification for the animosity. 

I hate most of all that the new norm is that we claim fraud and lies and deep state tactics when we get an outcome we don't like.  That's disheartening.   

I am in favor of cutting association with a name tied to murder in the name of religion.  I am in favor of dissociating with a name used prominently by the Ku Klux Klan. 

The justifications are there for why the name change would be appropriate.  Using the sham survey and process narrative is gaslighting and takes away from the real concerns about the name, the real social change that is occurring particularly in most recent years and among younger generations.  Feel free to defend the messaging of the Crusades and Crusader on its merits.  Don't bog us down with the manufactured indignity of sham survey and other conspiracy claims. 

We live in a society where there is an easy solution to any outcome we don't like.   Just claim a deep state conspiracy and get indignant.  And most importantly, assume that EVERYONE must feel the same way you and your circle feels.  Any divergent thought is impossible to fathom.

I think that some of you are not getting that this isn't solely the mascot change that has folks up in arms.  It is the overly sensitive nature of what this all ties to and the reasons provided publicly, and how I/we now view the university.  If the university is going to be publicly far left-leaning, like a Loyola (IL), I have no reason to support the university in the future.  This isn't just about a sports mascot to me, and being afraid of change. 

This makes me better understand your objection and decision to potentially pull back from donating to the university AND makes me feel more strongly that the mascot change is the right move both at the same time. 

It tells me that neither side is inherently wrong, it's just a difference in how we each view the world. 

Just to add to the debate.  I was not offended by the Crusader mascot, but I voted for the change in the survey.  The debate has dogged us for decades. Time to move on.  It's a cartoon character on the uniform.  Surely our allegiance should be to the university, the students, the professors, the staff, the coaches, and the athletes.  The mascot feels very low on the list of points of meaningful pride. 

Also, if the last 4 years has taught us anything, one should be that it's best not to assume that everyone thinks exactly like you do.  You might be deceiving yourself to assume that the results were skewed one way just because your social group leans the other.

What can I say? I'm a pessimist. We have a long history of losing to teams with a number in front of their names. Losses to URI and Oregon. Both will be close enough for us to pat ourselves on the back though 

I know I am excited to hear more obvious parallels between Valpo and DePaul! 

To respond to various points on this thread:

Yes, I suspect there is bad blood with Bryce.  It's becoming more clear by the day.

Yes, key relationships held together by the Drew family are quickly unraveling.

Yes, the longstanding repercussions of a program in a downward spiral have already begun and are irreversible.

Yes, we are still headed back to 4-24 without the Drew family.

And finally, yes, I will enjoy watching all of you come around to my early identification of reality.

Thanks for posting Mr. Maravilla, but let's stop talking in generalities and give us the scoop on what really happened with the Skara transfer.

 

Mike Hutton seems to be mastering the art of the "hot take". Maybe he is angling to take Skip Bayless place on ESPN.

With all due respect, his daughter is 0 for 2, so thus far she has as much insider info as me 12 hours away from campus!

Nonetheless, I do not want anyone to be driven off for any reason.  There's no doubt ValpoDad has contributed far more to the board in six months than I have in a decade.

Maybe I am the only one with these thoughts but I'm Just making a suggestion to all to try to avoid jumping too quickly on rumors and innuendo that have no credibility.

Very glad this is staying in-house.  You all will be happy with the hire when you hear from ml at the presser.  Players are staying, looks good for Alec too.

So are you saying Skara is staying now???

I certainly appreciate your activity on the board, especially with myself being a rare poster, but your quick jump at any completely unfounded rumors or misunderstandings is downright exhausting. Not to mention, the near constant references to DePaul. (Might I suggest a new drinking game where we drink each time ValpoDad refers to DePaul or mentions that his daughter is on the dance team.)

Matt Lottich was quoted that he envisions playing Jaume Sorolla and Derrik Smits together.  Twin towers at the same time. 

Didn't the 98 team start a 7' and a 6'11? 

Yep, The "V" Towers.  Just don't ask me to spell their names!

Tony Vilcinkas and Ivan Vujic?

Without peeking! And... wrong.  Vilcinskas.

But, maybe Vujic wasn't on the team until 98-99?

Tony Vilcinskas and Zoran Viskovic

I'll be there!

Even with the loss I am glad to see EVN getting fully back into the rotation, but he is still showing the signs of rust. A lot of questions the coaches will need to answer.

I am of the belief that this is what EVN is. He can certainly play better than this, but I think he disrupts our offensive flow and does not have the scoring ability of any other guard on our team. Beyond his height, what does he offer that our other guards, including Hammink, don't?